Creative Critical Reflection 

     The final part of my project is finally complete: my CCR.  This whole journey has been an interesting learning experience.  Although the film industry may not be my chosen career path, I still enjoyed creating this project and documenting all of it in my blog.  

Final Project Finale

     I have finally finished the actual project portion of the Media Studies final.  The editing process was much easier than I thought it would be.  After watching a few quick tutorials on YouTube, it was relatively simple to do what I wanted.  Most of the editing just consisted of rearranging still shots and adding captions to the opening credits.  The more difficult tasks, changing the coloring of some portion of the video and reversing a video of the hour glass reversing, was still not too difficult.

     Although the quality of the overall product was not as great as I would have liked, I am satisfied with the overall content and final product.  It is possible that I could have improved much of the video with better control of lighting and such, but what I produced is very acceptable.  The feel of what I wanted  was confusion and mystery, and even though the video was a lot more abstract then I thought it would, I would say I accomplished my goal

Fixing the Filming 

     Vicente and I have finally finished our second try of filming our project, and we simplified the project so much from the last time. Instead of my horrible acting constantly appearing, we decided to film a lot more static shots and things representing our overall theme of life and death. These things consisted of an hourglass running out (which I have some ideas for in post), a clock ticking which I plan on making it look like it froze to make it seem odd, and just me appearing to be ill in bed. 

    Some of the shots aren’t perfect but I hope to be able to fix most of it in the editing process. The one thing I am almost positive I will have to reshoot is the clock part. I wasn’t sure how to make it appear like it stopped without freezing the shot in editing, but I think it will appear too still. It may be a good shot seeing how it’s supposed to show time stopping, but if it looks bad, I will be more than happy to reshoot that simple part. 

Another Group Meeting and a ton of changes

     The other day in class we had another group meeting scheduled.  I was originally nervous since I had nothing new to show with all my footage corrupt.  In my mind, I thought I would be wasting my and everyone else's time.  Thankfully, the meeting actually turned out to be very productive.

     When it got to me and I had to present what I had to the group,  I decided to explain my problem, show my storyboard with the revised ideas, and asked if they had any suggestions, and my group had some great advice.  They agreed with me that I should cut out the whole section in the forest since it reveals too much of the plot for my ominous tone I am going for.  The group suggested that I use more still shots that represent the theme of life and death that I am going for.  Although I'm not exactly sure how I will do this, it is definitely something to think about.

The Filming Fiasco

     After looking at the footage from both our days of filming, I have found a major problem.  It seems as if everything we have filmed has been corrupted and is unusable.  This is very upsetting, especially since we have found out so late in the process. What we will have to do is re film this weekend the best we can.

     I asked my television production friends what could have happened in case I make the same mistake again.  After a very educational conversation, we came to a specific reason to why this happened to my footage.  The very professional camera that I used to film captured in 60 frames per second, a very large amount of frames.  The SD card I used for the project was a 4 speed so it was not fast enough to record the footage correctly.  For the next time I film, I will have to buy a 10 speed SD card or film in 30 fps.  

     Although this is a major issue, it is very fixable.  The only other issues I can foresee is getting people to come and help last minute and on a Sunday.  I am trying to keep a positive outlook in that I can redo some shots or try to act a little better.  Although it is hard when I think of how little time I have left, I will just have to wait and plan the best I can.

 

     

Day Two Troubles

     For the second day of filming, Me, Vicente, and our friend that was acting as the cameraman went to Markham Park.  As I have said before, this part of the filming process was planned to be extra in case the part we had planned was too short.  Looking back at the footage from the other day of filming, its starting to seem like we'll need it.  

     The first part of the process was choosing an exact location to film in.  Although we could have done this a little earlier, it wasn't hard to choose a location once we got there.  There was one forest that stretched a very large difference, and despite a recent hurricane knocking over a few of the trees, we found a location perfect to film on.

     The biggest problem that we ran into was my acting ability.  I have no idea why, but on the day we were supposed to film, I had a large amount of trouble portraying the emotions that I was supposed to.  I kept trying for about 30 minutes but I couldn't seem to get it.  Eventually we all agreed that it would benefit us all to just keep it simple since it wasn't working out.  We did one shot where it didn't show my face to end it, and it ended up looking pretty goods so we ended filming.  As a bonus, both the sets were easy to get to, so if we need to re shoot anything after we see a problem in editing, we can.

     

First Day Filming

     Vicente and I have finally started the filming process. As previously mentioned, the first day will consist of filming in my house and tomorrow we will go to Markham Park to film extra in case what we have planned is too short. The filming process consisted of two parts: the photos and then acting in the bedroom. 

     The photo part was very easy; all it consisted of was doing a steady pan over a few of my baby photos. The lighting was almost perfect already since it was late afternoon when we filmed. We just used two phone flashlights to create the perfect shot we wanted.  My TV friends were suggesting to me to only use four pans of the photos or else it may get boring.  This may lead to a shorter time than I thought for the film opening, so I'm glad that we're filming some extra stuff tomorrow.  

     For the actual acting portion, the filming went relatively well.  The three of my friends that were used as extras did a very good job acting.  I was actually very surprised at how good one of them was at acting.  My other friend who was acting as the cameraman did a very good job.  After every shot I would look at what he filmed and would approve it, fulfilling my duties as director.  For my acting ability ,however, I was not so great.  I knew going into this I'm not the best actor, so I went in with low expectations for myself.  With that mindset, I did not do too terrible so we were able to get all of the required shots.  Hopefully all will be just as well tomorrow.



     

Film Prep Frenzy

     Vicente and I have finally worked everything out and agreed to begin filming tomorrow.  The filming will consist of two days.  One day will consist of filming all of the intro we plan to use in my home.  The next day we will film in the forest of Markham park to film the second half of the previously posted storyboard.  The stuff we film the second day will only be used if we feel like the first day filming we plan on using is too short, and after reviewing some of the shots we plan to use, it seems likely.  

    The casting has already been handled as well.  One of my friends who has taken this class and is in television production is helping us by filming while both my partner and I direct and act.  I also had two of my other friends who are also in television production to help act.  I decided to use myself as an actor so the photos of me in the film opening match the protagonist.  Sadly, I'm not the best actor, so hopefully I'll get lucky and it will go well. 

        

Fake Blood Bonanza

     As mentioned in my last post, I am creating fake blood in order to make the story of death in the film opening slightly more obvious.  After doing some research, I found a recipe that would result in the correct texture and color to make it look realistic.  Below is a list of ingredients and instructions on how to make it, available on this website with a few other different recipes to make fake blood for several circumstances.

     After deciding that this is the recipe I wanted to use, I gathered all of the ingredients and mixed it as the instructions said.  The results turned out a lot better than I expected; as shown in the photo below, the fake blood turned out to be the right color and looked very realistic.

    The one issue I had was that the fake blood acted too much like a liquid.  Although this doesn't seem like that big of a problem, it would seem off on film.  To solve this issue, I simply added more corn starch and mixed it thoroughly.  This made the mixture the same thickness as real blood, making it much more realistic.  The next time I post, I should have a list of people I will have to act in my film.

Prop Propaganda

     My partner have decides that we are going to film someday next week, so getting the props and tools for filming is necessary.  Some of the things that we need will be easy to get while others may be a little harder.  A few of these things that will be needed are a camera, fake blood, sheets that can be ruined, dark clothing, lighting tools, and actors.

     The actual tools are going to be very easy to acquire.  The camera, a Canon Rebel T5, is being acquired through one of my friends that used to be in my schools TV program and is very high quality.  The only thing the camera cost me was buying my friend a quick lunch.  Below is a picture of it.

     For lighting I do have a few options.  I could try and borrow lighting tools from another friend, buy high end lighting supplies, or go the easy route and use phone lights.  The issue with the lighting my friend has is that it doesn't have a lot of control and is low quality.  The high end lighting I can buy is at least $70, and my partner and I don't have that kind of money to spend.  With this information, we have decided the lighting should be done with multiple iPhone cameras.  

     The fake blood would be used to make it more obvious that the main character is dead in the film opening.  After doing some research, there is fake blood I can buy in stores and there are many recipes I can use online to make it.  I am going to try and make it with an online recipe instead of going the easy route.  That way, I can mess with the recipe as pleased and get the color and texture I want.  I will talk more about this in my post tomorrow.

     Finally, finding actors will probably be the easiest part of this project.  Vicente and I have many friends that could help us out.  We just need to decide on a day to film so we can establish who's available that day.  

The Shot Scenario 

     Since the set of the film opening has been confirmed to be at my house, I decided to take advantage of the convenience of the set and plan out some of the shots I will be using in the film opening.

     Above is just a small sample of the baby photos that can be used for the project.  Since there is only two minutes of intro, I feel like this single wall of photos should be plenty.  This portion of the scene will consist of a pan over the photos from older photos to newer photos.  The scene would consists of cuts between the photos and a corpse with friends mourning in the room photoed below (minus the mess).

   In my next post I will be focusing on my props and getting them all together.  The day of filming is coming soon, and I need to seriously prepare for it.

Set Situation

     As I mentioned yesterday, Vicente are using my house as the set of our film opening.  I decided my place would be the perfect place for a few reasons.  The first reason is the convenience; since it is my house and my dad will be out, we will have full access to do whatever we need to do to create a good scene.  Secondly, my mom has been taking photos of me non-stop for about 17 years.  My house is filled with child photos of me and my family for many years.  Since our idea for the film opening involves a lot of baby photos, it works perfectly. Finally, I used my house as a layout for my storyboard, so I already have an image in my head of every shot I need.  Next time, I will take a picture of every shot I need in order to see what furniture I will have to move to film.

Plot Rehashing Recess

     What I thought would be a simple conversation with my partner turned into a project changing conversation that took five times as long as I thought it would.  In my last post, I mentioned that in a class review session, my group advised me to shorten my plot significantly in order to not give too much away and to fit the time limit of two minutes, and Vicente's group said the same thing.  We both agreed that we need to shorten it, but how we would do it was very much up for debate.

     My original idea was to use the first half of the storyboard with it ending when the main character wakes up and enters limbo.  Vicente disagreed and believed that we should use the second half of the storyboard for our film opening.  His thought process was that if we only used the beginning portion of our original idea, it would be boring and people would be very confused.  We both believed our idea would be the best way to go, so we argued for a good amount of time.  He continued on with his argument of the lack of entertainment mine would have while I argued that less is better since this is only two minutes of an entire film.  To support my argument, I reminded him of the beginning of the film The Prestige, which can be viewed here.  Although it is slightly more exciting then ours, the opening is very confusing and none of it is explained until the end of the movie.  After this argument, he agreed to use my idea but only if we do multiple cuts between the baby pictures and dead character.  This way, it will create more movement and create some interest.

    In other news, we also have decided a few things filming wise.  One of my friends who owns a very nice camera has allowed me to borrow it for the project.  This will make the quality of the project very clean.  For lighting, I may have to go and buy spotlights, but if they are too expensive, phone cameras will work just as well.  Finally, I talked to my parents and they will get out of the house for a day so I we can have a set for the film.  With a very accessible place to shoot, I am going to start planning out exact rooms to film in and example of shots I'll want. 

Group Meeting Gratefulness

     A couple of days ago, our teacher put us into groups in order to get outside criticism and notes on our projects and blogs.  It allowed classmates with an unbiased view to give me tips on my project and ideas on how to make it better.  When I got into my group, we went over a few of the other peoples projects before we eventually got to review mine. 

     The first thing my group commented on was how nice my blog was.  They appreciated how much I wrote in each post and my occasional use of visuals to help explain my goal for the week.  After appreciating those nice comments for a few moments, I asked them about the storyboard I previously made.  All of them unanimously agreed that my film opening was way too long and would not fit within the allotted time of two minutes.  I kept this in mind and talked to my partner after the group meetings.  Apparently, his group said the same thing, so we both agreed it would be best to cut it off halfway through the storyboard.  More changes will have to be made, but I will discuss that in a later blog.

Story boarding Scenario

     As promised in my last blog post, I have created a storyboard for the film opening.  Since me nor my partner are very artistic, I used this website to assist me in creating the storyboard.  The website allowed me to choose from a set list of backgrounds and character models in order to portray the scenes I wanted.  The red arrows in the first two panels represents camera movement

     I will discuss this with my partner as soon as I can and talk about any changes we need to make to finalize the plot.  I also emailed a few companies about the song "Dear God" since me and Vicente changed our minds about not using it.  Other than these, we are about ready to start planning to shoot this next week!  

Shots Shots Shots

Shots, Shots, Shots

     Vicente and I met up today to discuss what we wanted our project to look like. First, we discussed possible filming locations. Some places that we looked at were Markham Park, Vicente's house and finally, my house. During our scouting of locations, we also determined a basic plot of our opening.
   
     The film will open showing baby pictures on the walls of the home of the protagonist. Showing the pictures will also serve as an opportunity to roll the title credits of the film, including the actual names of the protagonist, director, and writer. Once the baby pictures have faded through, the camera will cut to a wide shot of a bedroom with people crowded around a bed. The camera will move between people to show a person lying on a bed. The person lying in the bed (the protagonist) will suddenly snap their body up so that they are facing the camera. This movement will show his dissent into limbo.
   
     This is most of the story that we have thought of thus far, although the rest of the story will be revealed in my next blog post when I will show my storyboard for the entire opening. Tomorrow I am planning on emailing the record labels Virgin Records, Idea Records, Geffen Records, and Cooking Vinyl about usage of songs for my opening.

Target audience Tango

     Vicente and I agreed that it would be so much easier to decide on a tone for our film if we figured on a target audience for our entire film.  To do this, we will compare the idea of our film to movies with a similar genre to ours that can only be described as paranormal drama. Two movies that fit that criteria are The Sixth Sense and Constantine. 

     

     Constantine is an action thriller with a heavy focus on a supernatural battle between heaven and hell.  The movie was rated R and had a target audience of adult males 18-45.  I feel as if I will use some aspects of the film and ignore others.  Like Constantine, my movie will revolve around a mystic world with biblical context; however, we both felt that since the movie is about a neutral zone, it would not have as much action.  The Sixth Sense about how a young child can see and talk to dead people.  What I like about this movie's tone is that it does not try to be scary, only   creepy and anxious.  The target audience of this movie is slightly younger with boys and men aged 15-45.

     After my partner and I looked at these similar movies, we decided that we are going to stick with a serious tone and a more mature feel to our film opening.  Not only would it fit our newly decided target audience of adults aged 18-45 (based on looking at both the films above), but it also help keeps the suspense and drama that is consistent of the genre.  What this also means is that I will have to change my song choices since they don't fit the tone.  The one song that I would have possibly used is "Stairway to Heaven", but my teacher advised me to choose a different one since it may be impossible to get permission to use.  For my next blog post, I will focus on trying to get a song to use that does not require permission.

Schedule Scuttle

     This week has been very disorganized for me in terms of this project.  I have been thinking about it aimlessly with no real objective in mind.  This doesn't really surprise me, though.  For all of my projects for this class, I usually complete them with no schedule in mind whatsoever.  This results in me rushing to finish the project last minute, which is not a fun experience.  To combat my procrastination this time, I created a schedule for my partner and me for the remaining six weeks (and it's even color coded).

     The salmon represents the planning phase.  In the first week, we have already established a basic plot to follow and started to think about possible music since that needs to be started early.  The second week will have a focus on finalizing the tone, target audience, and overall feel of the film opening early on so we can also have a good idea on what exactly will happen in the scene.  During the third week, Vicente and I will create a storyboard in order to finalize all the shots we will need to film and the equipment required.

     The tan section represents preparing to film.  This consists of obtaining equipment film wise such as cameras, lights, and a set as well as costumes and props.  Even though this won't be that hard of a task due to having friends in the television production program at my school, I gave it a full week and a second that overlap other parts of the process.

     The green section is filming.  Going into this part very prepared, I do not believe that it will take long at all. This makes me think that I might find myself ahead of schedule at this point (I am aware this is wishful thinking), which makes me happy because I believe the next section will be very challenging

     The purple section represents editing and the creative critical reflection.  In all honesty, I think the filming will take take four or five days maximum, so the week that I have overlapping for filming and editing will mostly be used for editing.  Editing has always been a grueling process for me, as I am not that experienced with it.  Fortunately, I have talked to my friend and he will allow me to use his professional editing software, Premiere.  I plan on watching tutorial videos to help me learn, so hopefully the editing will go faster than it usually does.  I think the CCR will be easy to do right since I plan on taking clips from the film and doing a voice over for them, which I've been told isn't hard at all.

     I really hope that this schedule will prove to be effective.  I plan on trying to follow this the best I can so I don't fall behind.  My partner also now has a copy of this so hopefully he'll help me stay on track to assist my lack of self motivation.  I will let you all know how it goes as my project develops.

     Music Mania

     Although it is still very early in the creative process, I decided it might be a smart idea to start figuring out how to get permission to use a song in case we decide we want to use one later.  After doing some research I found an article on everything I need to know in order to request permission to use a song.  There was one quote in the article that stuck out to me:

"Expect getting permission to take anywhere from one to three months. Permission should be obtained before you complete your work. It is sometimes more difficult and more expensive to obtain permission after a book, film, or recording is complete".

This encouraged me to start seriously thinking about which songs I might possibly use in the film opening and start sending out emails.

    Since the topic of the film opening is life and death, I decided to use that as a focus in my songs.  With this in my mind, Three choices came to mind:

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Don't fear the Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult

Dear God - XTC

The reason I chose these three songs is because they are relatively popular and all pertain to death in some way.  These songs are all very different in tone, which will leave me with options once I start planning the film opening and get a sense of the mood.   I'm going to talk to Vicente about this to see if he agrees with my options or has some of his own to suggest.  Once that is done, I'm going to send an email to the companies that own the song rights and alert you all of my progress.  

Stim, Richard. “The Basics of Getting Permission.” Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center, 10 Apr. 2017, fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/introduction/getting-permission/#determine_if_permission_is_needed.

     Bothersome Brainstorming

     It's the time of the year I have been dreading for months: the start of the biggest project of the year.  Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to have the opportunity to create a film opening with total creative control, but I have never been good at the brainstorming process.  When projects have very little direction for me to go in, I sometimes struggle to come up with a solid idea.  It's almost like in my head there is a million and a half ideas and I cannot concentrate enough on a single one to develop it.

  

     Despite my issues it was time to think of a plot idea.  My partner, Vicente and I agreed that it would be best to split up to create two separate ideas for a film, so I was on my own.  I went through many half baked ideas in my head trying to think of one that would stick.  With the help of a few friends who let me bounce ideas off of them, I decided on a paranormal murder mystery.  In it, a man would wake up in limbo after his death, and in order to proceed to heaven or hell, he must solve his murder.  It would also be called Limbo since the character is between Heaven and Hell.  Content with the idea, I decided to share it with Vicente and he loved it. He also had an idea, in which a star athlete would get hurt and he would have to make a recovery.  We both agreed his idea felt too cliche and overdone, so we decided to go forward with mine.

     Although there is still plenty of planning left to go, I am happy that I at least have a solid idea to work around for the rest of the project.  Although we may later decide to change our idea as we move forward in the creative process, we now have a basis that we can keep as a constant. I will keep you all updated as this project continues to develop.